Our free press has rights, responsibilities

1:42 PM,
Oct. 16, 2013

Written by

Gene Policinski

The First Amendment is very clear in its 45 words that it protects a "free press" along with our rights to religious freedom, free speech and the rights to assemble and petition.

But the Founders, in effect, placed a responsibility on that free press in return for being the only profession named in the Bill of Rights: The news media were to be a "watchdog on government," providing us with the facts, perspective and sometimes contrarian views that help citizens better chart the course of their government.

One of the latest versions of that centuries-old daily duty is playing out now in a Wisconsin ...